Anne Widdicombe Suspicious Death

[AClassicTrenchcoat]

Suspicious death, suspected murder. Think there is a press conference soon.

Doesn't make it less distasteful.

Especially while her murderer is still on the loose...

I said upthread, I shared none of her political views.

But, I still find it very sad that a lone woman has been killed in her own home.

Yes, her life will be discussed, and she will be criticised, but this soon, it’s just a time to express condolences.

No need to pick over her bones quite so soon. 🙄

Carried them to her grave?

Fucking hell, I am out of here. I need a shower.

She opposed fox hunting - so she couldn't have been wholly bad.

It seems to me that you're projecting your own past views on to Ann Widdecombe in order to feel better about yourself.

Me too.

Some of the comments on this thread are unpleasant, others are down right offensive.

The police are not stupid and if they have opened an investigation then I am sure there is clear evidence of a suspicious death.

in the past there have been cases where murders of elderly people were initially treated as deaths from natural causes - simply because of the unchallenged assumption that if an elderly person dies, it must have been a fall, heart attack, etc. fortunately I think the police have learnt from their past mistakes.

I dont understand why if you put a 'religious frame' around peoples beliefs that suddenly makes it something we have to tiptoe round and ' respect' . Why ? They are just views like anybody else's. They dont have special status. It's shouldn't be used as an excuse for abhorrent views and bad behaviour..

Anyone, with any ounce of dignity and class would refrain from making negative comments at such a time. - but she did not refrain from such comments when she was alive and caused lots of people endless distress.

One can abhor the manner of her death whilst also recognising and stating the damage she did.

Where I mentioned shutting down views, literally people have copied in MNHQ to close down this thread!

It actually makes it worse. In my own case, as a naive and young person, I was pressured into holding views I now find abhorrent by church leaders who pushed a very strong narrative that sounded pretty convincing.

Many years later I can see I was taken advantage of by people with a very nasty agenda. Many people with extreme religious views are driven far more by fear and hate than principle.

It is not “spewing bile” to acknowledge that some of the things she stood for made life more difficult for some people.
It is possible to discuss this while also feeling huge sympathy for her and her family after this terrible crime.

“The implied question, ‘Is nothing sacred?’, should always be answered with a stoical ‘No.’”

Well, yes, obviously one would hope that if it is a murder then the person who did it will be caught.

RIP Ann, what an awful way to go.

I have sometimes used her as an example of something I really admire about British society, and I think this isn't universal to everywhere (I have mixed ancestry including British and others, and I think it is much more true on the British side): there is an honoured place for women who don't marry or have children, even as they age.

I've been reading comments here, and on Reddit/X etc, and one common theme is that in amongst the "die in hell hag" comments, universally every comment that mentions meeting her in person says they found her sparky, warm, intelligent, witty etc. I think regardless of whether you shared her politics, it's wonderful that culturally we have a role for women like her to live her life to the fullest extent as she did. I know some people might find that obvious but I don't think it's a universal cultural value.

It is possible to discuss this while also feeling huge sympathy for her and her family after this terrible crime.

But not at the same time, in the same thread, within 48 hours of an ongoing murder investigation.

It would far more sensitive to appreciate there is a time and place for everything.

I'm sure the OP didn't start her thread as a debate about opinions on AW.

What do you mean 'literally copied in MNHQ'?

Social media delivers the content but for most of social media people are curating their own little bubbles.

When someone says “this only happens from Group X” it tells me they need to broaden their reading and try following people they don’t agree with as well as those who echo back their own opinions.

I agree. I'm glad you were able to step back from it and see it clearly. I went to church ...Anglican....when I was young, until about 14 in fact, and was confirmed. When I started to get a mind of my own and look around, I realised that many of the people who went to the church in my village were actually really uncharitable, unpleasant and horribly status conscious. They clearly only went to church to be seen to be going there and to want to be seen to be high minded. The hypocrisy was so thick you could have cut it with a knife. Ever since then Ive been very gimlet eyed about spiritual and religious people. Truly good people who perform acts of kindness tend to keep quiet about it and just getvin with it. They dont go on TV and pontificate about doctrine in great detail.

He tweeted again, defending his previous tweet after the news came out that she had been murdered. I guess he's deleted that one too. He's a horrible piece of work.

she came 2nd in celebrity big brother so she must have come across fairly well.

Poor Ann, she must have been so frightened. By all accounts she was an incredibly kind woman to those who knew her in her personal life.

As an old cradle Catholic I'm afraid I do resent people who became Catholic last Tuesday and suddenly started giving the Pope lessons on theology. I'm thinking more of the ghastly JD Vance here tbh. But it seems to be a thing in the UK as well. All these fantasists in their Knights Templar costumes. Sorry to derail....but I paid my dues in Catholic school....

You seem to have swapped one set of prejudice for another.
You see your journey from Christian values to modern secular values as finding the truth now and demonising people who still hold religious views.

Yes, exactly. I can't help feel that people like Widdecombe and Rees-Mogg have used faith to put a respectable veneer on views that are extremely nasty and reactionary, and have climbed to positions of power by making all the right connections through the church and establishment.